Country: Spain Region: Rioja

Varietal: Tempranillo / Garnacha Blend

Vintage: 2015 Colour: Red Style: Dry

Producer: Bodegas Muga

Description:

This Super-Spanish legend is one of the wine-world's great bargains...

I’ve been lucky enough to try various vintages of Prado Enea from the 1970s and they were absolutely stunning, comfortably sitting alongside 2^nd Growth Bordeaux, with glorious savoury complexity, energy, and balance. So the delicious latest release of Muga’s flagship Rioja, Prado Enea, is a wine you might consider. Like many allocation wines, I have been able to secure just 90 bottles of this wine and when it’s gone, we’ll have Muga reserva, but little or none of the Prado Enea until next year’s vintage is allocated. You can also see from below how this wine can pay as an investment also. 

The qualities that the fruit gains from the very high, cool vineyard that forms this superstar are so clear to see here; it is generous and rich but with true grace, balance, and confidence. We bought all that we could of this Gran Reserva immediately upon tasting, particularly as they only make the Prado Enea in the best years (and they didn’t bottle any 2007, 2008, 2012, or 2013!).

This is one of the great wine-trade inside-tips, which will drink wonderfully now and will also thoroughly reward ageing for 20+ years. And, with the lesser 1994 trading at well over 2 times the price, it makes it an even finer prospect… a wine investment if you can keep your eyes off it.

In February’s Decanter Magazine, Sarah Jane Evans Master of Wine lists her top 20 Gran Reserva Riojas this year. The first is La Rioja Alta 890 which costs over €210 per bottle. The second, is Muga Prado Enea at just €75 per bottle!

‘Wonderful; A Superb Gran Reserva, so finely balanced between between the silky tannins and the elegance of maturity. It’s fermented in oak, and spends three years in American and French oak barrels.

(All made by the in house cooper).

It then spends a further three years in bottle. 2015 made powerful wines, but this is supremely controlled. My favourite from the Muga stable.  – Drink from 2023 – 2070. Alc: 14.5%

Sarah Jane Evans MW, Decanter Magazine

Food Matches: Goat Cheese / Beef / Lamb / Veal

99 points Tim Atkin, MW: "(14.5%). Produced in what Isaac Muga calls the "super vintage" of 2015, this is one of the great Prado Eneas, a wine that falls just short of perfection. Sourced from the cool zone close to the Montes Obarenes, it's a stunning, age-worthy cuvée of Tempranillo with 15% Garnacha and 5% Mazuelo, aged in French and American oak. Combining structure with finesse, this is concentrated, chalky yet refreshing with wonderful precision and palate length. 2028-40. (2023)"

98 points Sarah Jane Evans, MW (Decanter): "Wonderful: a superb Gran Reserva, so finely balanced between the silky tannins and the elegance of maturity. It's fermented in oak, and spends three years in American and French oak barrels (all made by their own cooper). It then spends a further three years in bottle. 2015 made powerful wines, but this is supremely controlled. My favourite from the Muga stable. Alcohol 14.5%. Drinking Window: 2023-2070. (12/6/22)"

97 points Luis Gutiérrez (Wine Advocate): "The most classical of their wines, the 2015 Prado Enea Gran Reserva is a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano, mostly from Rioja Alta (Sajazarra, Cellorigo and Fonzaleche), but the Garnacha is from different plots in the zone of Tudelilla at high altitude. These grapes are always picked last, but the wine has a similar alcohol level as the rest, around 14.5% in a warm year like 2019. The modus operandi is similar to other of the top cuvées—harvested into 200-kilogram boxes, destemming, optical sorting and fermentation in small oak casks with indigenous yeasts. The élevage in this case is extended to 36 months, and the barrels are only 10% new. This is, year in, year out, my favorite wine from Muga, and in this powerful and ripe year, these late-harvesting vines ripened thoroughly and delivered a full array of aromas and flavors so that the wine has plenty of depth and complexity. It has a very classical profile, with incipient tertiary notes, perfumed, floral and rich, textured and beautifully balanced. They compare this 2015 with 2009 and 2005 in terms of style but with freshness in the style of 2001 and 2010. It's enjoyable but should also develop for a long time in bottle. One of the finest Prado Enea vintages. It was bottled in November 2018. There's no 2012 or 2013 of this. There will be a 2016 and 2019, but no 2017 or 2018. 2020 is still a question mark, they have not yet decided it. Drink: 2022-2040. (7/14/22)"

97 points James Suckling: "Reserved and polished, this is a Prado Enea with great class and focus. It’s so aromatic,with plum, peach, cherry and cedar character. Salted olives, too. Medium-to full-bodied with very fine tannins and a long, fresh finish. Elegance with power here. Give it three or four years to open, but already impressive. (7/4/22)"

95 points/'Podium Award,' Peñín Guide to Spanish Wine: "(tempranillo, garnacha, mazuelo, graciano). Colour: dark-red cherry, garnet rim. Nose: ripe fruit, fruit preserve, aged wood nuances, tobacco, sweet spices. Palate: spicy, round tannins, long. (2023)"